Green with Envy

Where did this saying come from? I certainly don't think it is appropriate to be associating envy with people that consider themselves green these days!

I was thinking about the desire to update possessions, cars, houses, etc on the way home tonight. Perhaps I was thinking it would be nice if I had the newer model of the car I drive or the latest version of the Macbook I write this blog on! But then these thoughts transcended to thinking no, there is no reason to update either of these possessions. They do me well, neither are running roughly or creating much struggle for me and neither are causing me substantial financial outlay to keep them going. But I admit am envious of the people that do have the newer models of these (on occasions).

On this note, I think perhaps this (envy) is the curse of the current generations - that much of what we want is affordable and easily obtainable and we can quickly update our out-of-date appliances, phones, computers, cars, really most things that we 'rely' on in our modern lives. Sure some might take us a little longer than others, but truly our lives are blessed with many assets, money and capabilities than previous generations have had available to them.

In light of this ease, I think many people revolve around their need to keep up with their friends, the neighbours and generally what is perceived as exciting to have in our modern community. Envy drives us and means that we have many things previous generations never had and definitely didn't take for granted.

Perhaps if we can control our 'envy', we might tread more lightly on this planet, have smaller environmental footprints and might even have more time to smell the flowers. So next time you think it is important to have the latest computer, phone, whatever, think twice about this and see whether what you already have might do the job! Pin It